Separating device for fluid media

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a separating device for fluid media, which media can be received in a working housing ( 1 ), comprising a separating piston ( 3 ) which inside the working housing ( 1 ) separates two media compartments ( 5, 7 ) from one another in a media-tight manner and which separating piston ( 3 ) is provided along the external circumference thereof at least partially with a guiding means ( 19 ) which during a traversing movement of the separating piston ( 3 ) inside the working housing ( 1 ) bears slidably on the inner wall ( 21 ), characterised in that the guiding means ( 19 ) is an integral component of the separating piston ( 3 ).

The invention relates to a separating device for fluid media, which can be received in a working housing, having a separating piston, which separates two media chambers from one another in a media-tight manner within the working housing, and which is provided along the outer circumference thereof at least partially with a guiding device, which, during a traversing movement of the separating piston within the working housing, rests slidingly against the inner wall thereof. In addition, the invention relates to a piston/cylinder assembly, which has a separating device of this kind.

Separating devices of the above-mentioned generic kind are used in a wide variety of application areas and in conjunction with a wide array of media and in working housings of all different types of designs and uses. Depending on the area of application, liquid, gaseous or conditionally flowable media, such as pasty substances, may be enclosed in the appropriate media chambers. Accordingly, the respective separating piston may have the task of separating gaseous media from fluid media, gaseous media from gaseous media, fluid media from fluid media, or one of the above-mentioned types of media from a pasty media, or of separating pasty media from one another. Other significant areas of application for separating devices of the above-mentioned generic type are piston/cylinder assemblies such as pump devices, working cylinders or piston accumulators. When the separating piston is intended to serve as a pump piston or working piston for pump devices or working cylinders, said separating piston must be coupled with a power transmitting device, for example in the form of a piston rod. In the case of a piston accumulator, the separating piston can be displaced as a free piston in the respective accumulator housing, and separates a gas side from an oil side in this housing, for example.

In view of the wide variety of applications for such separating devices, of which only a portion of the aforesaid can be addressed merely by way of example, this results in large production quantities when manufacturing such separating devices. For economic reasons, there is therefore a demand for the efficient and cost-effective production of the separating devices, in view of this problem, the object of the invention is to provide a separating device that can be produced in a simple and cost-effective manner, but that nevertheless is distinguished by an advantageous and reliable operating performance.

This object is achieved according to the invention by a separating device having the features of Claim 1 in its entirety.

According to the characterizing part of Claim 1, a specific characteristic of the invention is the fact that the guiding device is an integral component of the separating piston. Due to the fact that to this extent, the piston itself must assume the guiding function for the traversing movements within the working housing with its own material, the devices that are provided in the prior art cease to be used, such as conventional guide bands or guide rails, which can be received in groove-like recesses that are formed along the outer circumference of the respective separating pistons. The invention not only leads to a reduction in material costs, but it also avoids the assembly costs of mounting the guide bands and rails so that, in particular, it is possible to achieve lower manufacturing costs.

For particularly simple and efficient production, the arrangement may be such that the guiding device has a guide ring, which is formed directly on the separating piston.

In the case of particularly advantageous exemplary embodiments, the guide ring is formed on an end region of the separating piston.

In the case of such an embodiment, particularly favorable guiding and sealing properties of the separating piston are achieved when a circumferential annular groove is formed on the end region of the separating piston that is located opposite the guide ring as a seat for a piston seal, for example in the form of an O-ring. As a result of the axial spacing between the guide ring and the piston seal thus formed, the separating piston is made particularly tilt-proof and is guided with an effective seal along the inner wall of the working housing.

The guide ring may form a part of a guide, surface that forms a cylinder jacket in order to interact with a circular cylindrical inner wall of the working housing, so that a sliding surface is formed over an axial region of the piston.

In the case of particularly advantageous exemplary embodiments, the separating piston has a piston head, which forms the partition wall between the chambers of the working housing, said piston head having a curvature into the inside of the piston, which forms a part of a spherical surface. A domed structure not only contributes to an increase in strength, but also makes it possible to increase the volume of the media chamber that is adjacent to the piston head of the separating piston.

In an particularly advantageous manner, this arrangement may be such that the piston head of the separating piston forms a hemispheric-like dome that is open towards the piston side, the inside of which dome is provided with ribs, which extend along circles of longitude with reference to the equatorial plane defined by the opening of the hemispheric shape. The hemispheric-like shape of a dome having reinforcing inner ribs results both in the piston head having a high degree of structural stability, and in a comparatively large increase in the volume of the chamber that is adjacent to the piston head.

In the case of exemplary embodiments, in which an outer surface of the dome of the piston head formed in the region of the center of the sphere extends to the height of the adjacent end region of the separating piston, a particular advantage is achieved by the fact that the stiff dome structure of the piston head can serve as a bearing surface, with which the separating piston can be supported on the end cap in the case of a traversing movement to an end cap of a respective working housing.

In the case of particularly advantageous exemplary embodiments, the separating piston is designed in such a way that reinforcement ribs in the form of plates, which extend such that they are uniformly spaced apart from one another in the shape of a star in a radial direction, form the connection between the guide ring of the separating piston and the piston head thereof. As a result, the separating piston has an open design with a cavity, in which a high degree of strength is achieved with a minimum use of materials. In addition to the advantage of minimum material usage, the advantage of a low piston weight with a correspondingly low mass inertia of the piston during the traversing movements is also achieved. This is advantageous, not only when using the separating piston in the case of a piston/cylinder assembly in the form of power cylinders, pump cylinders or the like, but in particular, when using the separating piston as a tree piston in the case of accumulator pistons, in which a light weight piston allows for a good response behavior.

in the case of a design having reinforcement ribs as connecting elements between the guide ring and the piston head of the separating piston, it is possible to omit a closed piston skirt that extends between the guide ring and the piston head in the interest of saving on weight and material. The radially external end edges of the reinforcement ribs may also extend in the axial region of the separating piston between the guide ring and the annular groove such that they are offset radially inward, as a result of which there is a further reduction of weight and material usage. In so doing, the end edge may extend inward with a radial curve.

In the case of particularly advantageous exemplary embodiments, the reinforcement ribs are designed in such a way that the upper edge thereof lies in the same plane as the upper outer surface of the spheroidal dome of the piston head and as the end edge of the guide ring, which defines the end of the piston. This results in a significant increase in the contact surface, with which the separating piston come to rest on a cover of a respective working housing, for example a cylinder cover in the case of an accumulator piston.

The design having a piston head region that is reinforced by a hemispheric-like dome and having reinforcing ribs makes it possible to manufacture a separating piston with a high degree of structural and form stability at minimal material costs, and in particular opens up the possibility of manufacturing the separating piston out of a plastic material in an injection molding process in an especially efficient and economical manner.

According to claim 14, the subject matter of the invention is also to provide a piston/cylinder assembly, which has a separating device according to one of the Claims 1 to 13.

A piston/cylinder assembly of this kind may be advantageously designed, among other things, as an accumulator piston, in which the separating piston separates a gas side from an oil side.

The invention is explained in greater detail below on the basis of exemplary embodiments that are depicted in the drawings. Shown are:

FIG. 1 a longitudinal section of a schematically simplified accumulator piston, provided with a separating piston in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the separating device according to the invention;

FIG. 2 a top view of the separating piston from FIG. 1 that has been enlarged as compared to a practical embodiment;

FIG. 3 a further enlarged and oblique sectional view in perspective of the separating piston from FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 a depiction of a second exemplary embodiment of the separating piston that is similar to that in FIG. 3 and

FIGS. 5 to 9 corresponding depictions of third through seventh exemplary embodiments of the separating piston.

The separating device according to the invention is explained in the following description on the basis of an example of use, in which an axially displaceable separating piston 3 separates an oil side 5 from a gas side 7 in an accumulator housing, which is designated as a whole as 1. The circular cylindrical no using 1 is closed at the ends by two cover pieces 9, 11, of which, the cover piece 9 located on the left in FIG. 1 has an oil connection 13, which makes it possible to connect the accumulator piston in a fluid-conveying manner to the pipework (not further depicted) of a hydraulic system and to connect said piston to the oil side 5. The cover piece 11 located on the right in FIG. 1 may have a filling valve not shown), by means of which the gas side 7 can be filled with a working gas, for example a nitrogen gas. The design of an accumulator piston as thus noted is prior art, and so it is not necessary to dwell on this in greater detail here.

As is shown in detail in FIG. 1 and in particular in FIGS. 2 and 3, in which the separating piston 3 is depicted in detail, the separating piston 3 is designed in a kind of lightweight construction, wherein a plurality of cavities are located between a piston head 15, which forms the partition wall between the oil side 5 and has side 7, and end region 17 that is located opposite the piston head 15. In the region of this end region, 17, a guide ring 19 is formed directly on the outer circumference of the separating piston 3 as are integral component of this separating piston 3. The guide ring 19, which is provided as a piston guide, forms a guide surface 23 in the form of a part of a cylinder jacket externally for interaction with the circular cylindrical inner wall 21 of the housing 1, which cylinder jacket extends from the end region 17 along part of the axial length of the separating piston 3, along approximately ⅕ of the axial length of the separating piston 3. An annular groove 27 is adjoined along the circumference piston head 15 at the outer edge 25 thereof as a seat for a sealing element, which acts as a piston seal, such as an O-ring 29, which is only shown in FIG. 1. In a central region, the piston head 15 has a curvature 31 in the direction of the piston interior, which forms a part of a spherical surface. In the case of the exemplary embodiment in FIGS. 1 to 3, the separating piston 3 has a piston wall 33, which extends axially to the annular groove 27 from the guide ring 19 to the guide surface 23 thereof, such that said wall is offset radially inward. Reinforcement ribs 35 in the form of fiat plates, which extend in the shape of a star in a radial direction. form the connection between the guide ring 19, the piston wall 33 and the piston head 15, wherein, as can be most clearly seen in FIG. 3, the radially internal end edges of the reinforcement ribs 35 converge at a cylindrical mounting ring 37 in the central region of the curvature 31 of the piston head 15. The end edges 39 of the reinforcement ribs 35 abut the inside of the guide ring 19 and the piston wall 33. As can be seen most dearly in FIG. 3, radially extending end edges 41 of the reinforcement ribs 35 extend in in a curved profile to the mounting ring 37, which is located lower down in an axial direction.

The second exemplary embodiment, which is depicted in FIG. 4, differs from the example described above, among other things, by a piston head 15 that has a significantly more pronounced curve. Starting from the region of the outer edge 25 having the annular groove 27 located therein for the sealing element, which is not shown in FIG. 4, the central curvature 31 is formed in such a way that a hemispheric-like dome 43 is created in the interior of the separating piston 3, on the inside and outside of which dome, cavities are located. The dome 43 is reinforced on the inside by ribs 45, which project from the inner wall, which extend along regularly spaced circles of longitude in the direction of the center of the sphere 47 with reference to the equatorial plane defined by the opening of the hemispheric shape. A further difference from the first exemplary embodiment exists in the fact that the outer piston wall 33 is omitted between the guide ring 19 and the annular groove 27, and that the radially external end edge 39 of the reinforcement ribs 35 is offset radially inwardly from the outer circumference of the separating piston 3.

The third exemplary embodiment, which is shown in FIG. 5, corresponds to the exemplary embodiment from FIG. 4, with the exception of the fact that the center of the sphere 47 of the dome 43 is axially raised to the same plane as the end region 17. At the center of the sphere 47, an outer surface 49 is formed in such a way that a larger contact surface is formed for contact with a cover piece 9, which results in improved strength properties in the event that an overpressure would prevail on the oil side 5. A bore 51 formed on the outer surface 49 can serve as a connection device for a coupling element that may be provided, such as a piston rod.

FIG. 6 shows a fourth exemplary embodiment, which differs from the embodiment shown in FIG. 5 only insofar as the outer edge 39 of the reinforcement ribs 35 between the guide ring 19 and the outside of the dome 43 do not extend in a straight line, but rather, curves radially inward.

The fifth exemplary embodiment from FIG. 7 corresponds to the exemplary embodiment from FIG. 5, with the exception that the upper end edge 41 of the reinforcement ribs 35 extend in the same plane as the upper end region 17 of the separating piston 3 and the outer surface 49 of the center of the sphere 47 of the dome 43. Together with this outer surface 49, the end edges 41 of the reinforcement ribs 35 enlarge the contact surface for resting against a housing cover, as a result of which, especially favorable strength properties are achieved.

The sixth exemplary embodiment from FIG. 8 corresponds to the exemplary embodiment from FIG. 7, with the exception that, as is likewise the case in the example from FIG. 6, the radially external end edge 39 of the reinforcement ribs 35 extends between the guide ring 19 and the annular groove 27 such that said edges curve radially inward.

The seventh exemplary embodiment in FIG. 9 differs from the example in FIG. 8 in that the radially external 39 end edges of the reinforcement ribs 35, do not extend in an axial direction starting at the guide ring 19 to the annular groove 27, but rather, are adjacent to the outside of the dome 43 in a region 53 that is axially offset from the annular groove 27. Thanks to the high degree of structural stability of the spherical dome 43, favorable strength properties of the separating piston 3 are achieved despite the additional saving on piston material and resultant further reduced piston weight.

The design of the separating piston 3 according to the invention makes it possible to integrally form the separating piston 3 from a plastic material such that it has a high degree of stability and a very low piston weight, for example using injection molding. For example, polyarylamide may be provided as a material, which essentially has the same thermal expansion coefficients as a steel material, which are suitable as a material for the working housing, for example, as an accumulator housing 1, in many application areas. Piston/cylinder assemblies having the separating device according to the invention can thereby be reliably operated over wide working or temperature ranges, for example over ranges of −40° C. to 120′ C. or greater. A reinforcement of the plastic material may also be provided, such as glass fiber reinforcement and/or plastic fibers or a plastic ply, which can be applied in the manner of a laminate. 

1. A separating device for fluid media, which can he received in a working housing (1), having a separating piston (3), which separates two media chambers (5, 7) from one another in a media-tight manner within the working housing (1), and which is provided along the outer circumference thereof at least partially with a guiding device (19), which, during a traversing movement of the separating piston (3) within the working housing (1), rests slidingly against the inner Wall (21) thereof, characterized in that the guiding device (19) is an integral component of the separating piston (3).
 2. The separating device according to claim 1, characterized in that the guiding device has a guide ring (19), which is formed directly on the separating piston (3).
 3. The separating device according to claim 1, characterized in that the guide ring (19) is formed on an end region (17) of the separating piston (3).
 4. The separating device according to claim 1, characterized in that a circumferential annular groove (27) is formed on the end region of the separating piston (3) that is located opposite the guide ring (19) as a seat for a piston seal, for example in the form of a O-ring (29).
 5. The separating device according to claim 1, characterized in that the guide ring (19) forms a part of a guide surface (23) forming part of a cylinder jacket in order to interact with a circular cylindrical inner wall (21) of the working housing (1).
 6. The separating device according to claim 1, characterized in that the separating piston (3) has a piston head (15), which forms the partition wall between the chambers (5, 7) of the working housing (1), said piston head has a curvature (31) into the inside of the piston, which forms a part of the spherical surface.
 7. The separating device according to claim 1, characterized in that the piston head (15) of the separating piston (3) forms a hemispherical-like dome (43) that is open towards a side of the piston, the inside of which dome being provided with ribs (45), which extend along circles of longitude to the center of the sphere (47) of the dome (43) with reference to the equatorial plane defined by the opening of the hemispheric shape.
 8. The separating device according to claim 1, characterized in that the dome (43) of the piston head (15) extends with an outer surface (49) that is formed in the region of the center of the sphere (47) to the height of the adjacent end region (17) of the separating piston (3).
 9. The separating device according to claim 1, characterized in that reinforcement ribs (35) in the form of plates that extend such that they are uniformly spaced apart from one another in a radial direction, form the connection between the guide ring (19) of the separating piston (3) and the piston head (15) thereof.
 10. The separating device according to claim 1, characterized in that the reinforcement ribs (35) in the axial region of the piston (2) located between the guide ring (19) and the annular groove (27) have an end edge (39) that is offset radially inward from the outer circumference of the separating piston (3).
 11. The separating device according to claim 1, characterized in that the outer end edge (39) of the reinforcement ribs (35) extending between the guide ring (19) and the annular groove (27) extends inward with a radial curve starting at the guide ring (19).
 12. The separating device according to claim 1, characterized in that the upper edge (41) of the reinforcement ribs (35) lie in the same plane as the upper outer surface (49) of the spheroidal dome (43) and as the end edge of the guide ring (19), which defines the end of the piston.
 13. The separating device according to claim 1, characterized in that the end edge (39) of the reinforcement ribs facing the annular groove (27) is adjacent to the outside of the spheroidal dome (43) at a place (53), which is axially offset as compared to the facing wall of the annular groove (27).
 14. A piston/cylinder assembly, which has a separating device according to claim 1, the separating piston (3) of which separating device can be displaced in a working housing (1) in the form of a cylinder, in which the separating piston (3) separates two working chambers (5, 7) from one another in a media-tight manner.
 15. The piston/cylinder assembly according to claim 14, characterized in that said assembly is designed as a piston accumulator, in which the separating piston (3) separates a gas side (7) from an oil side (5). 